it’s becoming increasingly more common to hear about pesticide use and the importance of eating organic, especially with readily available info like the dirty dozen, but it’s rare we hear specifics on chemicals and their harmful effects.

the other morning i received an email from the food & water watch about methyl iodide and it’s common use in growing strawberries, and it really hit home for me.

“methyl iodide is a known carcinogen that is used in growing strawberries, and using it presents unacceptable risks to pregnant women, children and farmworkers. a panel of nobel scientists called methyl iodide “one of the most toxic chemicals used in manufacturing.”

[ photo taken at the brentwood farmers market ]

governor brown just appointed a new head of the CA dept of pesticide regulation, brian leahy, a successful organic farmer. this means we’ve got a an advocate and also a great chance to make sure ending the use of methyl iodide happens here in CA, and sets a precedent for other states. click here to learn more about how you can help ban the use of methyl iodide and protect consumers and farmworkers alike.

11 year old birke baehr has changed his mind about becoming a professional football player, and plans to pursue a career as an organic farmer, because he can make a greater impact on the world.

kid knows what’s up. this 5 minute video is definitely worth watching.

he spoke at the TEDx next generation conference in asheville in 2010, where he succinctly presented his learnings about far-away and less-than-picturesque industrial farms through his “roadschooled” travels with his family. keeping farms out of sight promotes a rosy, unreal picture of big ag he argues, and thus presents a case to green and localize food production.

very, very well said.

in 2006, a university of chicago study found a vegan diet is far more effective than driving a hybrid car in reducing our carbon footprint. a prius drive who consumes a meat-based diet actually contribute more to global warming than a hummer drive who eats low on the food chain.

a 2009 report in the scientific american reports that “producing beef for the table has a surprising environmental cost: it releases prodigious amounts of heat-trapping greenhouse gases,” so much that according to the UN food and agriculture organization, it accounts for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, a larger share than all the SUVs, cars, trucks, buses, trains, ships and planes in the world combined.

environmental defense, a group hardly known for taking radical stands, calculates that if every meat eater in the US swapped just one meal of chicken per week for a vegetarian meal, the carbon savings would be equivalent to taking half a million cars off the road.

[ photo taken by my papa on a recent trip to italy. crespano del grappa is the hometown of family friends of ours, where the cows migrate freely as they should ]

world bank agricultural scientist robert goodland, who spent 23 years as the bank’s lead environmental advisor, and jeff anhang, an environmental specialist for the bank, came to the staggering conclusion that animals raised for food actually account for more than half of all human-caused greenhouse gases. eating plants instead of animals, the authors conclude, would be by far the most effective strategy to reverse climate change, because it “would have far more rapid effects on greenhouse gas emissions and their atmospheric concentrations – and thus on the rate that the climate is warming – than actions to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy.”

there is a tremendous correlation between the food choices that are the healthiest, and those that are most socially and environmentally responsible.

i’m not suggesting every one fully adopt a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle, but i do think it’s important that we all increase our awareness and decrease our meat consumption. the environment and your heart will thank you.

information comes from the highly recommended book [ the food revolution ] by john robbins.